Small Comforts
by May000
Summary: Feeling dejected by Sakaki's apparent lack of interest, Kaorin finds comfort in the new girl, strange as she is. Kaorin/Osaka: a series of ficlets exploring the romance/friendship between the two.


A/N: I decided to try a less usual pairing and write a series of ficlets on them. Also, I like having Osaka in things (doesn't everyone?).

Disclaimer: Azumanga Daioh and the characters and situations therein are not mine.

Basis For Comparison

It had been one of those first meetings that Kaorin hadn't thought much of for long after it had happened. Sakaki had…Sakaki had done something amazing in a Sakaki sort of way and the girl's voice had edged into Kaorin's consciousness as they had watched.

"Wow," an Osakan accent had drawled. "I'm gonna aim for her."

Kaorin's stomach had flipped and her heart had leaped into her throat. The image of someone else courting and attaining Sakaki filled her with an unbidden lead feeling.

"Aim for her?" exclaimed Kaorin, turning to stare at her sudden rival. "But…"

The other girl had her fists clenched, and her mouth tight shut. Her eyes were wide and vacant, however, which gave the rest of her stance a somewhat less defiant look. It was the new girl, Ayumu Kasuga. There had been some sort of a commotion created about her by classmate of Kaorin's, Tomo Takino, but she was always loud, so…Kasuga was probably just another ordinary student. Or, at least, she had been. Kaorin had been staring at Sakaki too much to notice, but now it looked like she'd need to watch this Ayumu Kasuga. Or 'Osaka' as she apparently was now called.

"Yeah…" said Osaka, still staring obstinately at Sakaki as the tall brunette jumped into the air and gracefully knocked the ball over the net. "I'm gonna aim to be just like her."

Kaorin had felt the tension drain out of her. However, in a last bid for dominance, the sudden animosity had clung on and she hadn't resisted adding a '…good luck. You're gonna need it."

She had forgotten about actually meeting Osaka for the first time, then, but, later, after having spent time around the decidedly odd girl, she'd thought back to it. It was one of those times when you desperately wanted to drag every detail from your mind. Originally, she couldn't really explain why that was, since Osaka was different to Sakaki in every single way. Sakaki was tall, beautiful, athletic, voluptuous, clever and…over there, staring out of the window and almost never at Kaorin. Osaka was small, sort of plain and spacey looking, physically awkward, flat-chested, kind of dim and...over here, paying attention to her and talking to her. Well, as much as Osaka wholly paid attention to anything, anyway.

That was how it had been, then. Sakaki was amazing, and she made everything better by just being right there. But Kaorin had begun to notice the size of Osaka's eyes and the softness of her voice and the brush of her hair against her collarbone. Perhaps it was because she really did pay attention in her own strange way.

Soon, Kaorin found herself staring for slightly too long and slightly too intense a moment. Chihiro had obviously noticed, because the short-haired girl was giving her an aside glance; it was that somewhat wary look she got whenever she wasn't quite sure. The two of them had talked for ages about how wonderful Sakaki was. Osaka was only ever brought up in jest. Kaorin had found it somewhat uncomfortable to bring her up in any other context. She wasn't sure why.

It could have been the fact that Osaka was kind of odd, and so it seemed strange to say that Kaorin thought she was anything else. Kaorin felt slightly guilty. Perhaps it was just out of devotion to Sakaki, even though the tall girl knew nothing and it was silly, anyway. Kaorin still felt bad, though, because it meant that all those feelings were for nothing. Now, she felt fickle whenever she watched Sakaki hurl a ball over a net, lithe muscles clenched and hair swinging, or when she noticed how Sakaki's uniform hugged her curves, or when she heard the rare sound of Sakaki's low, mellifluous voice. Because she felt those things, still.

And then Osaka flail along the athletics track, just behind Chiyo, and Kaorin would tell herself how silly the girl looked. And yet it was endearing in a way that made her feel inappropriately warm, inside. And Osaka's uniform always seemed slightly too baggy, with any hint of a shape she might have had hidden underneath, and only her skinny arms and legs visible from her sleeves and the hem of her skirt. Kaorin could only think of little dolls in school uniforms, cuddly despite their awkwardness. And there was her slow, soft voice that meandered about everything and sometimes it would pipe up about one thing and it would inevitably be the wrong thing at the wrong time, and sometimes she would launch into a whole speech that would mean nothing and go nowhere. And sometimes she started wondering what Osaka would say about any given thing. Unwittingly, a smile would form on her face when she considered what weird thing would have popped into the girl's head.

It was certainly strange how the girl had got into her mind like that. Kaorin found herself going over that first conversation on an increasingly regular basis. And then she started going over other conversations she might have with the girl. One thing was certainly good about Osaka; Kaorin never found herself stammering or blushing in her presence. It was much easier to talk naturally to Osaka, to keep a stoic face. She wasn't _better_ than Sakaki, not at all. She was just different. Very different.


End file.
